The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1887-12-03
WIlTER'S WEAKNESS.
" more Prominent Peculiarities Of nm
A~rgumentative Man,

"ouiu NJ any Time rather discuss. no
matter what, than eat or sleep; and
Wllter was no unskillful hand with the
knife and fork. and as for sleeping,
when he really set about it, he could
almost equal the achievements of the
most somnolent of that famous seven
OF Ehpesus. But augmentation was
his best hold, and when he had a lob
OF discussion on hand-and it was
very rarely that he was out of employ
mcnt in that line of industry-he would
give up sleep, forego food. neglect his
work. and coniine himself entirely 10
word-twisting and ratiocination.
And it mattcred not what the sub.
ject in dispute might be. Big or little,
OF pressing Importance or Of no earthly
interest to any body, it was all tho
same to him. He was ever on the
watch, and let an unfortunate indiyid-
ual lay down the most trivial of COM
monplace propositions, Wilter would
take it up instantcr and argue for
hours as to its obvious falsity and in
herent impossibility. l remember
once when John Milding happened to
speak of the irritability of a certain
person. "And what do you mean by
irritabilityP" was the ready retort OF
Wilter. Though naturally surprised
at such u question, ven from n mar
of Wiltcr's well-known propensities,
Milding replied that itmeant the quail
ity of being easily irritated, suscepti.
bility to excitement or evaporation.
Then Wilter put on II of those exas-
perating smiles of his. which said as
plainly as words could have
expressed it: "Ah. my boy! now I've
got your Wilter had somewhere run
across the word in its physiological
sense. "a healthful vital susceptibility
to the influence Of natural, medicinal
and mechanical agents. and the power
of responding in a normal manner,
both by sensation and actions; espe-
cially the property, in living tissue, of
sudden contraction, followed by relaxa-
ton, produced by direct stimulus of its
substance, or through the influence
of the nerves. and with this idea
in his mind, he straightway proceeded
to demolish Milding's position-or
persuaded himself he was demolishing
it, which amounted to the same thing
and, in his own estimation, had very
soon left poor Mildin@ without a leg
to stand on. Now, Milding WAS no
debator. He hated argument as AZ
IDENTITY as u certain unspeakaJle indi-
vidual is popularity supposed to
hate holy water. But when
Milding was sure of his ground,
he wasn't the man to give it up with
out q struggle. Consequently he held
up his end as well as he was able, and
the dispute was long and wordy. AS
each was right from his own stand
point. and wrong from the others
premise, they were no nearer agree
mcnt after u three hours disputation
than when they began. But that
didn't trouble Wilter a particle. In
deed, it loft him with a subject for
argument the next day, and the next.
and so on indefinitely.
On another occasion. somebody hap
pening to mention Patagonia as being
Iii SOUTH America, Wilter, possibly out
| of II mere love of discussion, bounced
upon the timerous one, and not only
denied that Patagonia was in South
| America, but unblushingly de-
clarel that it was in Africa;
and he then proceeded to back up
his statement by long and vigorous
argument; and q very able argument
it was, and one that might easily have
convinced q person quite unfamiliar
with geography.
From these two illustrations, which
are true beyond pcradventure, n good
insight into the mental ~iliosYncracy
of Wilter is obtained. He never was
beaten in argument. for he never adj
mittcd any thing that ms opponent
advanced, and he had the immense
advantage of possessing a tongue that
never weariCd and q love Of discus
sion which knew no abatement.
Wilter when l knew him was an eN-
pert workman. He was raid 'by the
piece, and when he chose he could
earn in a given period of time twice
rs much as any two of his fellows.
But his rage for argument was so
powerful that his bill was gon-
orally the smallest OF all the
men in the shop. But no
cared not for that. He was happy so
long rs he could argue, which was
about all the time; and, though his
clothing was wholly u~npresentablo
and his face and hands dingy from
sa~ponaceous %abstention- and though
his family presented various degrees
Of shabbiness. and were usually on the
shortest of short commons, and spite
of the duns which ever lowered about
his head. Writer'S equauimily was
,o,.o,. l;stnr bod in flo slightest. Tho